Still Family
by oleanderedits
Summary: "You're my best friend. I mean, I think I figured that out about a year ago, but I never told you." (30DayOTP Prompt Challenge Day 27)


_That has to be the stupidest dog I've ever met._

It wasn't a fair thought, but it was the first one that came to Glenn's mind as he watched Daryl try to coax the ratty looking thing closer with a bit of meat from his sandwich. It was one of the few that hung around Alexandria. Still pampered and loyal and loving. More hairy than fat. Too stupid to know how dangerous humans were for it.

Well, maybe not for that one. It didn't have much meat on it. Probably wouldn't be all that filling if they had to kill it. Not that they did. But the thought was still there, in the back of Glenn's mind. It wouldn't have been the first dog they killed to feed themselves.

They weren't going to kill it, of course. They had food and water and were generally well off. But meat was only sustainable if they were raising animals they could slaughter. Thus far, they'd seen no evidence of the Alexandrians doing so. What meat they had was few and far between from the occasional hunt while the scavenger groups were out.

And now from Daryl. Once he got back to it. He didn't much like being inside the walls. All of them could tell that. He was as cagey as the dog was trusting.

"Make a new friend?" Glenn asked and shook the thought of killing the poor thing for meat from his head. It wasn't something any of them needed to dwell on.

Daryl looked up at him, his lips twitched into a smirk and he shrugged one shoulder while his fingers ran over the dog's ears and into the hair on it's back, "Been a long time since any of us could treat one of them like a pet."

Glenn blinked, brows shooting up. He probably shouldn't have been surprised that Daryl'st thoughts had been tracing the same paths his had, but he was. The way his friend had reverted to acting like the dogs were nothing more than companions when they got inside the walls rather than potential food sources had led Glenn to believe Daryl had put that one time with the feral pack out of his mind. Tucked it away with all the other things he didn't want to deal with until he had to.

Daryl took the look as something else, though. His shoulders hunched and his smirk turned into a frown. His eyes darted back to the dog as he slowed his petting, "Wasn't really thinking of this one like that."

"I wasn't thinking you were," Glenn answered quickly, shaking his head and trying his best to sound reassuring. "Really. I was just... I had been thinking that, actually. About how we don't have to eat him. It's nice to not have to look at every animal like it's food."

Daryl's shoulders relaxed and he tilted his head toward the spot on the porch next to him. Glenn shuffled over, sat down, and stretched his legs out the same way Daryl had his. They both leaned up against the rail while the ratty little dog climbed around, trying to be in both their laps at once as it begged for attention. Glenn laughed, a light sound he was getting used to making again. Daryl did, too. And it was nice. The two of them, just sitting there, playing with an ugly little dog that had to be the most adorable animal they'd seen since everything went down.

After a while, a silence settled around them. The dog's attention was drawn by a whistle and it ran off, leaving them alone with each other. Something else they hadn't had time for in months. Back at the prison, during the good days, they'd go out together on runs and look for survivors. They'd get time alone to hang out and talk and sit in a comfortable silence.

"You're my best friend," Glenn declared with a grin. He turned his head to see Daryl looking at him with brows knit in confusion. He laughed and nodded, reaching out to put a hand on one of Daryl's and give it a squeeze. He left it laying there while he continued, "You are. I mean, I think I figured that out about a year ago, but I never told you. It took me a while, you know, to realize it. Because for a few months, after the farm, I was thinking Maggie was my best friend."

Glenn met Daryl's eyes, tilted his head as he tried to sort his thoughts better, "And she's real close. Right up there. But of all the people I know and care about, you've been there the longest. And yeah, I mean, we didn't start off real well, but even then you were there for me. In your own way. So... I just think it's time I said it."

He gave Daryl's hand another squeeze and went to pull his own away. But he found that Daryl had twisted his hand over and wrapped his own fingers up and around his palm. Daryl was holding on. With them there, holding on just tightly enough to give resistance, Glenn surrendered to them. Let Daryl hold on and didn't fight it.

"And I know Carol's your best friend," he went on after a moment, feeling awkward now that he'd let it out. He had no real reason to. Daryl accepted him as he was, just as Daryl accepted everyone else for who they were. "So I'm not trying to get you to say otherwise. I just feel like I don't tell you that stuff enough. How important you are to me. You're my best friend, Daryl."

The other man was playing with his hand at that point and Glenn felt, rather than saw, him entwine their fingers before settling their joined hands on Glenn's lap. He looked down to see it and then lifted his gaze to Daryl's face. Daryl was looking back at him with one of those shy smiles he got that were more true to him than the smirk he'd gotten earlier.

"You're right," Daryl said after a moment more, eyes drifting down and away. "Carol is my best friend. But that don't mean you mean any less to me than she does. Actually, you uh... you're probably the one person outside of Rick that means as much to me as she does. Rick, he's my brother."

Daryl squeezed his hand and shook it lightly, rocking their palms for a moment. He brought his other hand up to his mouth and started to chew on the thumb, "You... you're... well, you know..."

"I'm not your brother, too?" Glenn asked, intending for it to be a playful tease.

Daryl flushed, though, shoulders hunching up for a second as he turned his head further to hide behind his hair. He dropped his thumb from his mouth and picked at one of the holes in his jeans as he shrugged again.

Glenn's expression sobered and he leaned over, putting his shoulder against Daryl's, "Hey, sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I was trying to make a joke."

"I know," Daryl muttered, leaning his shoulder into Glenn's in return. Telling him silently that he wasn't mad about it. "I just ain't good with all this romance novel shit."

"Romance novel?" Glenn questioned a second before the light bulb went off in his head and Daryl went back to chewing at his thumb.

"Oh."

The word seemed to hang in the air, tension eating away at them both. Daryl sat nearly stock still. Almost to the point of holding his breath. He hadn't said anything directly, so it was something he could deny if he chose to. Glenn knew this. He also knew that Daryl wasn't trying to. That he was letting the implications of that singular 'oh' sit between them. He was doing that thing where he said something without saying anything.

Glenn bit his bottom lip for a second, giving his mind time to process that before he relaxed and let his head list to the side where it could lay on Daryl's shoulder. Settled himself. After a moment, he snorted, "Never tell Maggie that unless you want her inviting you up for a threesome. She will."

Daryl's head spun around and Glenn could feel him staring at the top of his head, "That girl's a freak, you know that?"

"Yeah," Glenn laughed. "It's kind of the reason she's pregnant."

Daryl chuckled along with him until the silence settled between them again. Still comfortable.

Still family.


End file.
